Was up at Palmer on 5/26 (CCW). Interesting day. Only two laps under green in the first session. Someone dropped oil at a few places with a big splash at turn one. A Miata a few cars ahead went into the wall. Now... think what it might feel like going down the straight KNOWING there may still be an oil patch on turn one. It put the fear of god into every driver there for the rest of the day. Other than that, a great time with perfect weather. I'm registered for SCDA/LRP in June, July, August and September. It's definitely the last year for the R56 and I want to make the most of it by doing as many days in a season as gbuff1 does in a month! (NOTE: I cropped out the garage door opener to avoid harassment from VeggieVet. I have added a note to my track day list: LEAVE F-ING GARAGE DOOR OPENER HOME!)


Miata in the wall on right.

 

That is never any good to hit fluids in a turn. Fear of God and for one’s own life…

Years ago now I hit antifreeze at the apex of T3 at WGI, doing about 100 mph…. Don’t know how I managed to not hit anything….

I may do the June SCDA event. I see that it is coming up fast and I have yet to finish the gray MINI…. Ugh. The older I get, the less I get done….

 

Oops - spoke too soon. I have a commitment that day…

 

Haha, that's awesome gkp, the more the merrier

I've seen a number of fluid dumps already this year at WGI and also this week at Mid-Ohio but in all cases they shut the track down and really cleaned it up well. There was some oil-dry to get through but after a few laps it wasn't bad at all so as long as you're not going for PB laps through it you'll probably be OK. In the cases where they put a lot of it down and it doesn't dissipate I just avoid it, drive around it, etc. Good practice driving off line

My black R56 is now at 105K miles and I finally broke down and bought Vorshlag camber plates for it. I unpacked them and of course one was defective so they are sending me another. Hope to get them in some time next week and get the car aligned to save these poor A052s, I had to change out my l/f before lunch this week at Mid-O so I didn't waste the outer shoulder

 

WGI is expensive to clean up fluids. Don’t want to be doing that, or get right off the track if you do. Had a guy with a 911 who dropped oil from T4, all the way around to pit in. Those cars hold like 8 qts…. What a mess! The worst part for those of us waiting for the clean up is the lost track time. That is expensive to all the rest of us.

OMG!
Finally - camberplates - you are going to love them, and not just for saving tires. If you are running stock springs, you should be able to get about -2.5 deg, which will be really good.

Hey - have you changed the shocks out? This is time to do it, if not. Bilstein B8s The MINI shocks are really, really crap-tastic. And they were shot at 30k miles. The Bilsteins will improve the handling and improve the ride over the MINI Sports Suspension shock. They are great for riding the curbs… Ask me how I know all of this… Turner/ECS might still have their Bilstein sale going on.

 

I am running the stock springs with the original shocks, so if I did change out the shocks I'd probably go with B6s which Bilstein says are the same as B8s but with OEM length to pair with stock springs and B8s are shorter to pair with lowering springs. That's what they say, anyway....I asked Anthony about this very thing and he said that if they're not leaking (they're not) to leave them in there if you like the way the car feels (I do). So I'm going to leave them and a week after the plates are installed they'll leak!

 

Murphy’s Law! You know it!

However, the MINI shocks don’t need to be leaking to be bad. They give up internally.

I bought my R56S with the Sports suspension option, which I believe is what you have. At about 45k miles I had an alignment done and found one front wheel had more camber than it should have. As you know, the MINIs have non-adjustable camber up front. So that camber change should not have happened, unless something broke. I replaced the shocks with Bilstein B8s (on stock springs) and the camber went back into spec. Because the only change I made was the shocks, I can only assume that the MINI shock/strut went bad inside; something wore out. Around this same time the ride really started to deteriorate. Clearly the shocks were no longer working they way that they should.

The Bilstein B8s worked fine with the stock springs. The B6 should be no different. At any rate, replacing the stock MINI shock with the Bilsteins was one of the best things I could have done to the car. I wished I had believed all that I read on NAN about how crappy the MINI shocks are and I would have replaced them the day I bought the car, the difference was that great.

Not that I am trying to convince you to replace the shocks. Well, yes I am.

BTY - when you put the camberplates in, have the rear camber maxed out on the MINI adjusters. This should give you about -2.5 deg or a little less (if I remember correctly) on the rear wheels to balance the added camber and new grip up front. Not to worry about it creating understeer. The added camber up front will more than offset any increase in camber in the rear.

 

I think I hear the voice of experience.
I run -2F/-2.5R and love the setup.

 

That's what Anthony wants to do, like 2-2.5 in the back maxed out and set 2.5-2.75 in front. The A052s would like more in front but I'll start there, a bit less would probably help in the wet.

 

Mostly bad experience
Going to try for a bit more in front, I really want to try to make the A052s work. They are so soft they need a lot of camber and ideally a wider wheel which I don't have (15x7), but the grip is ridiculous and they are 1-2# lighter in weight than other tires in that size which helps when you have hamster power

 

Go to a 8x15” wheel and 225-45x15 tire. You would need a wheel with a 40mm ET. There is a lot of this stuff for Miatas, but the ET40-ish wheel is a little harder to find.

 

Just for example….

For a 225-45x15 tires
15x8 wheel:
https://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazd...t/61-2870.html

For the 205-50x15 tires
15x7.5 wheel
https://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazd...t/61-2819.html

 

I have seen those but I just bought 8 of these Sparco FF1s a season-and-a-half ago so I'll be using them for a while--listed at 11+ pounds and have held up well so far. I had Konig Dial-in wheels before I had these and out of the 8 I bought 6 of them had hairline-cracked spokes after less than one season. Thankfully I clean the insides of my wheels after every event or I would have never seen them on the BACK of the spokes where they meet the rim. Glad they were cheap ($129 each IIRC) because they all went into the bin.

 

Hairline cracks in the Konigs… that sucks. Yes good you caught that before it was a problem.

I have 17”x7.7 for my much heavier JCW. They have done well so far.

 

Hey, gbuff - how did you make out with the camber plates?

Also…

I am looking at a couple of upcoming track events. One is SCDA at LRP in mid July. It looks like it is on a Tuesday (7/18 half day), so I should be able to do that one. Hope to have the new suspension done on the R56 for that event. It will be interesting to see what more camber, new shocks, and stiffer springs do for the car.

The other is a 3 day event at WGI with GVC. I know, no one likes GVC. But, hey, I’ll be there, having fun. Day one is open track. Days 2 & 3 are a regular DE schedule with all levels of drivers. It really is a great time and lots of track time. Anyone game?

 

I'm signed up for 7/18. No WGI for me. Two days + three nights is a bit much for me these days.

 

Sure that is quite a trip for you, too. I’ll see what I can do to get to LRP on the 18th.

 

I signed up for 7/18 at LRP. Not sure which car yet

I would like to take the R56 with the new springs and camber/caster plates, but I am struggling with getting the K-Mac camber/caster plates to work on that car. They seem to be made 90 deg out from what is needed to make them work. I have re-engineered them to what I think is right. One seems fine, the other not so much. I need to get them installed in the car and have the car aligned to know for sure. On the plus side I have become quite the expert at taking off and putting on springs onto the shocks. It only took 3 or 4 tries to get the spring onto one shock because I kept rolling the spring perch rubber…



The “fall back car” is the ever fun and ready JCW.

gbuff - any word on your camberplate installation?

 

Waiting for Anthony to find time, we had a date scheduled but had to postpone as I came home from the track last week to find a puddle of coolant under the white car....Anthony diagnosed as needing a new radiator which amazingly they had in stock so that took priority. Plus he's working on his Porsche (roll cage, etc) and was at the track this past weekend, along with his autoxing he's a busy guy. Eventually...

 

I'll be there. I'm registered but will also be helping a friend who is planning on running his Radical (weather permitting) a car he is trying to sell. I told him I would take video to help with his sale. I hope to run all four sessions but that may not be the case. Now that I have made the decision this will be the last year tracking the MINI, I admit I am losing interest and already looking forward to my next ride. However, I will have a new set of Bridgestones mounted and maybe I'll break the elusive 1:03 barrier. That's my goal for however many track days I have left in the car.

 

1:03 is a really good time for these cars. Not sure if either of mine is at that point. However, it has been a while since I have taken any data, so maybe. Or I could have gotten slower.

See you there…

 

sub 1:03’s…….fun times!

 

Last year, with the new Bridgestones, and some new tips from the SCDA classroom, I logged a 1:03.38 (assuming Harry's Lap Timer is accurate). Would love to go below 1:03 just once before hanging up the R56.

 

Spec Miata territory, in a MINI!

I see 2 times in the 1:03s. Nicely done!

The new ‘Stones are almost as good as R-Comps that S-Driver had on his MINI. A lot has changed in the 200TW tire world since then. I hope to talk to you about those pointers at the next event. Subtle changes at that track are worth a lot. And looking forward to seeing that Radical.

I was very proud of the 1:03.xx that I saw on my data. That is, until I looked more closely at the data and found that Harry’s didn’t start the lap until the turn-in for Big Bend…. I think Harry’s was justmessin’ with me….

In my R56S, I think I have gotten into the 1:04s, but more typical are 1:05s.

 

Another track tire to add to the mix?

Nankang Sportnex CR-S

This link is to the Grassroots review. They says it is as good as the RE71RS and the A052.